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Kurdish general tells ITV News: British arms are needed to defeat IS militants

ITV News spoke to a general of Kurdish forces who said t hat ammunition was a problem Photo: ITV News

Kurdish forces need more military hardware and would welcome air strikes in their effort to hold back Islamist militants, a general has told ITV News.

Islamic State fighters have swept across northern Iraq capturing towns with a speed that has taken the region by surprise. While the Kurdish forces and US air strikes have slowed their progress, there is little sign of a retreat.

ITV News presenter Mark Austin joined a Kurdish unit fighting militants outside the city of Irbil and found that they were using hardware from the 1950s.

Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond has been urging a coordinated European response to the crisis at a meeting of EU foreign ministers in Brussels.

Before the meeting he said: "The UK has said we will also consider favourably any requests for supplies of arms. We are already shipping ammunition and supplies from other eastern European countries into Irbil".